Dawning Red
by Echo-kun
Summary: On the night of the Uchiha massacre, Itachi had an accomplice. They left the village together and they joined the infamous Akatsuki together. The defection of Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi!
1. Farewell Konoha

**Farewell Konoha**

A sharp gust of wind cut through the compound, bringing the sharp stench of blood to the man's sensitive nostrils, even through the mask. A full moon glared down at him, highlighting the wet stains that littered the ground, drawing sickly trails over the dirt. The first two hundred meters closest to him were free of mess, but as he looked up, the mess consumed the entire Uchiha compound.

A scream pierced the air causing the silver-haired man to look up and survey the mess; a dark eye and a bright red eye with three tomoe. Although his right eye couldn't pick up the presence of any living being, his left eye told him that ahead of him two living figures stood. One was under a genjutsu and the other was the one casting the genjutsu. Seeing that Itachi had the time to cast genjutsu, it must mean that this was the last Uchiha alive – Sasuke.

Despite his curiosity, the twenty year old chose to stay where he was; this would be the brothers' last meeting and he didn't exactly want to spoil it. Itachi must have been planning something, seeing that he had chosen to use Tsukuyomi. Genjutsu weren't meant to kill, they were meant to disable and disturb. It was a cruel way to part with his brother, but Kakashi was sure that his junior had a reason for doing this.

Kakashi brought his right hand up, bringing the long blade up to his line of sight; ascertaining that the blade was devoid of blood before returning it to its sheath on his back. Finally having his hands free, he crossed his arms, waiting for Itachi to show up. On his left shoulder, the red swirl tattoo of the ANBU glinted menacingly, corresponding with his black and gray armor. In place of his mask, the man wore a forehead protector, symbolizing his affiliation to the village.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, almost."

Itachi's calm voice responded from the shadow of a building. Kakashi watched as the younger male closed the distance, mangekyou sharingan still activated. The moonlight glinted off his armor but his ANBU tattoo was hidden under the high-necked Uchiha shirt that he had worn instead of the traditional ANBU one. In contrary to Kakashi's unruly silver hair, the Uchiha wore his dark hair long and tied neatly while his bangs framed his impassive face. Like Kakashi, he wore the standard Konoha forehead protector.

"You didn't have to help me. You could have become the Hokage."

Kakashi shrugged, "so could you," he pointed out, receiving a single nod of acknowledgment. "I was never the type to be Hokage. Besides, you could say that this is a type of revenge." He pulled his forehead protector down over his left eye, the one with the sharingan.

"Uchiha Obito."

"I guess."

After a long pause, the teen started speaking again, "I have them prepared, Kakashi-san, they're in here."

At Itachi's urge, Kakashi joined him in the shadow of the building, following him in silently. As Itachi had said, there were two sets of outfits, neatly folded on the table. Itachi took the one on the left, leaving the one on the right for Kakashi. Nodding his thanks, the ANBU took it, proceeding to change into it.

After this night, they were no more Konoha ANBU; they'd be S-Ranked Missing Ninjas in every village's bingo books. There was no turning back now, there was no chance to reconcile. Kakashi didn't exactly regret it; someone had to nip the problem in the bud before it destroyed the whole village – and the clan's pride.

"It suits you," Itachi commented as he deactivated his mangekyou sharingan.

"It suits you better," Kakashi returned the compliment, removing his forehead protector. Grabbing a kunai from his pouch, he scored through the steel, cutting straight through the Konoha leaf, cutting through every last tie that he had with the village. A similar screech of metal on metal told the man that Itachi had done the same thing he did.

Both put their forehead protectors back on; no more as Konoha ninja, but as fugitives. A dark eye met red eyes and two pairs of footsteps walked to the open air simultaneously. Past the doorway of the deserted house, past the entrance of the still Uchiha compound and past the large gates of the slumbering village of Konoha. As the pair walked into the forest, a rustle of wings could be heard and an owl hooted softly. Neither looked up to bother checking the animal, but the nocturnal hunter's sharp eyes watched them.

One had silver hair, the other had black hair. They both wore forehead protectors and kept their gazes straight ahead. Both wore dark ninja sandals and walked in a synchronized manner. In a patch of moonlight, the color suddenly blossomed to life for the absent human eyes to see; black cloaks with high collars and red clouds on them.

They were members of the Akatsuki.

* * *

><p><p>

**A/N: Hm. I know I'm being unfaithful. I still have to write To Hear Your Voice and KR 12 and here I am starting a new fic. (Gomen, minna.)**

**I had to do it once the idea came into my head. I'm still working out a lot of the details, so read and review! I'd like to know what people think of this!**


	2. New Home

**New Home**

"This is who you told me about, Itachi?"

"Yes."

"This is—"

"Hatake Kakashi." Kakashi finished for the ginger, holding a fingerless-gloved hand up in casual greeting.

The former Konoha ninjas had traveled through the night all the way to Amegakure, where the Akatsuki headquarters was hidden. Due to the rain, both Kakashi and Itachi were drenched as they stood before the leader of the ninja world's most wanted organization. For a hideout, it was pretty spacious and airy despite it being underground.

The ginger's ringed eyes narrowed slightly, "Sharingan no Kakashi?" He inquired, purple eyes focused on the silver-haired man.

Kakashi pushed up his forehead protector, exposing the brilliant crimson of the sharingan. "The one and only." He confirmed.

The ginger nodded thoughtfully as a blizzard of papers engulfed the whole room, gathering at his left. First the knee-length black sandals, then the black Akatsuki cloak with red clouds and finally the newcomer's face. She had a labret piercing and wore blue eyeshadow over her gray eyes. Her blue hair was worn down to her shoulders and she wore a paper flower in her hair. Kakashi's sharingan recognized this as a unique ability that he couldn't copy.

"Sharingan no Kakashi?" She asked, her facial expression neutral as she scrutinized the man. After a few moments, she turned to the ginger, "well, Pein?"

Pein nodded. "Do you have them here, Konan?"

The woman gave something to him, turning to look at Kakashi with the same neutral expression as before. Kakashi stole a quick glance at the Uchiha beside him, seeing that he had a more or less neutral expression as well.

Pein and Konan moved to stand before Itachi and Kakashi respectively. "Now..." Pein murmured.

"You remember the agreement we had, Pein-sama?" Kakashi's attention shifted to Itachi who stood beside him.

Sharingan stared into rinnegan for a long moment before the ginger replied. "Yes. Akatsuki will not act directly against Konoha as long as you – and Kakashi – are members of the organization."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow; Itachi had really thought of everything here. Not only had he managed to massacre his clan to ensure the safety of the village, he had made sure that it wouldn't directly be harmed by the most wanted organization in the world.

Once the Uchiha nodded, Kakashi turned back to look at Konan and Pein continued, "this will be proof of your membership to Akatsuki." Motioning for Itachi to hold his right hand out, he slid a ring onto the teen's ring finger.

When he pulled away, Itachi lifted it up to eye level to study it. There was a single kanji character written in black, surrounded in red. "Shu," he commented, stating the name of the kanji.

Instead of presenting Kakashi with his ring, Pein turned to Konan, who in turn motioned for Kakashi to raise his left hand, which he did without question. The woman slipped the ring on his ring finger and stepped away. Taking a look, the former ANBU read the black character in the middle of the yellow circle. "Nan," which meant south.

"Congratulations. You're now official members of the Akatsuki." Pein told them in a monotone voice. "You two will be partners. Await further notice, until then, you may do whatever you wish." Turning around, he left to wherever he usually passed time.

The former Konoha ninjas looked to the remaining person, Konan. She gave a little sigh, but didn't disappear like Pein did. "I'll show you your rooms." Beckoning for them to follow her, she led them out by the door they had come in from.

Kakashi caught Itachi's gaze and held it for a few moments as they followed Konan; he seemed to be asking if his senior was ok with this. He answered the question with a smile before turning back to follow the blue haired kunoichi. Reaching up, Kakashi slipped the forehead protector over his left eye, not wanting his sharingan to eat all his chakra up, making a mental note to train with Itachi and figure out how to either deactivate it or at least tone its power down a little more so that he wouldn't have to keep covering it all the time.

* * *

><p>Konan took her time walking as she navigated through the dark corridors absentmindedly. She knew that the two newly recruited ninjas were more than capable of finding their way back out if she just hurried through, but rushing wasn't exactly a part of her. Although it had not even been a day, the news of the Uchiha clan's massacre had already reached Amegakure. She knew that it was Itachi who had killed his clan and was smart enough to deduce that Kakashi was probably the one who had aided him in this and therefore joined Akatsuki as well. It was well known that Kakashi was a powerful ninja renown for his use of the sharingan and could be a valuable asset to Akatsuki. Then they would be a step closer to world peace.<p>

Soon they came to a flight of steps, which she merely jumped up. She didn't feel like climbing steps today. The two men followed her example and continued to follow her faithfully. Now they were overground, though the corridor was still dimly lit. Most of the inhabitants preferred it that way – no matter how seldom they were actually in.

Walking down towards the end, she opened the second last door on the left, "This is for Kakashi," then she turned to the one adjacent, opening the door as well, "and this is for Itachi." Having done her job, the kunoichi turned to leave. "Welcome to the gang," she said over her shoulder. As when they first saw her, she left in a flurry of papers, easily navigating back to her partner's side.

As usual, Pein was staring out at the village where the rain always fell on. Konan allowed a fleeting smile to grace her lips as the last piece of paper melted into her cloak, but just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

"And? What do you think of them?" Pein turned around to face his partner, regarding her calmly.

Konan shrugged. "They won't betray us, for sure." She replied. What did she think of them? She hadn't really seen them for long enough to know. If the rumors were true then they had obviously got the best deal here. "And now Akatsuki has two of the three great dojutsu." The kunoichi added.

The ginger in front of her nodded, "the two most skilled wielders of the sharingan. I'm expecting a lot from them." Tomorrow the other members of Akatsuki would be returning and they could finally discuss and get a move on starting the plan. He had heard that Kakuzu had killed his partner again and needed yet _another_ replacement. Orochimaru and Sasori were quite near, at the border of the River country and they would probably be back first. The two were quite an efficient team; perhaps he would send them to take care of the Nanabi.

"Why don't we send Kakashi and Itachi?" Pein's gaze suddenly snapped back to Konan, who had tilted her head in question. Once more she had guessed exactly what he was thinking. "We can test them like this."

Pein nodded; what Konan had said made sense. In fact, it made perfect sense that way. Not only would he be able to test their strength and teamwork, he could test their loyalty this way. "Then we will send them to capture the Nanabi. Thank you, Konan."

The kunoichi bowed her head, "no problem."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Is this ending a little better than the other one? I hope so. I didn't plan for too much PeinKo... it just sorta... happened? XD;**

**Also, I would like to know what people think if I bring in a couple of OC's... would it ruin the story? Please, _please_ comment and tell me what you think.**

… **Or I won't update any more. ^^**


	3. Attacked

**Attacked**

"Kakashi-san," The Uchiha knocked on the door, the ring on his hand flashing. When he received no response, he knocked again, "Kakashi-san!" This time he called a little louder, hoping to gain a reaction. When there was none present, Itachi merely opened the door, inviting himself into the still-bare room.

At six in the morning with rainy weather outside, not much light shone in through the windows. Since the curtains were open, the teen guessed that his partner had been too exhausted to do anything before flopping down on the bed fully dressed. Since he wasn't an Uchiha, using the sharingan must have taken more out of him than expected. Nevertheless, the man had to get up.

The night before Konan had told them to meet at the gathering hall at seven sharp. She had subtly hinted that Pein did _not_ like waiting. Being new members, it was obvious that they had better give a good first impression on the group. This included getting to their first meeting on time. Itachi knew more than well enough that Kakashi had a major problem being on time. He never gave proper reasons, but he never improved either. Itachi had made up his mind to set this habit of his right, even if it meant getting on his bad side.

That, and he definitely had to help Kakashi with his sharingan; it took up too much of the man's tiny chakra reserves to actually be useful in combat.

Walking to the bed, Itachi put a hand on the man's shoulder, shaking him a little to wake him up. "Kakashi-san!" He said once more, frowning.

As he took his hand away, the man gave a groan and turned to face him, mask slightly askew and dark eyes opening with more than just a little trouble. After a few agonizing seconds, he managed to turn over onto his back, where he lay gazing up at the ceiling disorientatedly. "Wha—?" He mumbled, still unable to make a coherent sentence.

"It's almost time, Kakashi-san. We need to get ready." Itachi replied, dark eyes focused on Kakashi's one visible dark eye – the other one was hidden under his forehead protector as usual.

Under the mask, the Uchiha could vaguely see that he was smiling. Letting out a soft bark of laughter, Kakashi pulled himself up with some effort. "Just like you, Itachi. You always say 'we' even though you're already done!" Despite the cheerfulness in his voice, the round of coughing that followed wasn't very convincing at all. Nevertheless, Kakashi managed to get himself out of bed, wincing as he rested his weight on his feet. "Hm... I think a little exercise would be quite nice right now," he murmured, adjusting his mask and casting a sidelong glance at the teen.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Itachi asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed in concern, staring him down relentlessly, as though he was already completely convinced that he wasn't.

In response, Kakashi walked over, almost a full head taller than the Uchiha. Putting a hand on his head, the silver-haired man smiled, "I'm not as fragile as you think, kid," he reminded his junior, taking his hand off a glowering Itachi's head, "after all, I _did_ get promoted four years before you did! What about a little spar, eh, my dearest kouhai?"

Itachi rolled his eyes, relaxing into a smile; of course Kakashi would be like that even after he had strained himself with a rather long spar the day before. "Suit yourself," he responded, tilting his head and closing his eyes.

When he opened them again, the crimson irises of his trademark sharingan was visible, matching nicely with the red clouds on his cloak. Kakashi nodded approvingly and they left to the training hall that they had found the day before.

* * *

><p>The area was cavernous and dark. It was larger than expected considering it was underground (just like the meeting hall); a faint air current flowed through the entire chamber, barely managing to upset either male's hair. Both in dressed in identical Akatsuki cloaks, they stood facing each other; Itachi with an expressionless face and Kakashi with a carefree look. The concrete walls surrounding them could be seen pockmarked by various jutsu – a particularly large burn mark from Itachi's Gokakyuu yesterday, a notoriously large crack from when Kakashi accidentally missed with his Raikiri and other various mishaps. Luckily for them, this training hall was already marked with other such misfortunes and no one should really notice.<p>

If one blinked even for the slightest moment, they would have missed the way that both men lunged at each other. They fought without weapons, each taking turns to block with a strong stance and attack with a light foot, jumping up and striking down or ducking and trying to unbalance the other with a leg sweep.

First it was Kakashi on the offense, then it was Itachi, then back to Kakashi. The fluidity of their movements perfectly matched each other, the speed to see and process each strike aided by their sharingan and practiced speed, honed to the fastest humanly possible.

The minutes seemed to pass slowly as the speed of the attacks increased and decreased like the ebb of an ocean's tide. Eventually five minutes was over, then ten, then thirteen, fourteen, and as though both had some kind of internal clock, they struck out once more to the other and promptly fell back.

Kakashi was breathing hard but not sweating as he let his arms fall to his side; he trusted Itachi enough to know that the match was over and not surprise him with another attack. When he looked up, he saw that Itachi was in a similar condition, a smirk present on his normally solemn face; nothing like a spar in the morning to wake one up. This time it had only been taijutsu, as they had practiced ninjutsu yesterday. Kakashi also suspected that Itachi was too wary to push both his and Kakashi's chakra limits, for both despite their famed genius and grasp of kekkei genkai and ninjutsu, had quite tiny chakra reserves.

"Well, that was some morning exercise!" The silver haired man commented airily, having already recovered his breath.

"Hn," Itachi straightened up, absentmindedly looking at the ring on his finger, "just like always." Out of curiosity, the Uchiha's eyes flicked upwards, looking to see what his senior's reaction would be.

Naturally, Kakashi just pulled his forehead protector over his sharingan, smiling as he did so. "Of course, we have to stay healthy don't we?" He replied in the same cheerful tone, readjusting his fingerless gloves so that they were a little more comfortable.

"Let's go. It's probably going to start soon."

Both men walked to the exit, taking the right turn and following the long passage to the meeting room. To say that the Akatsuki were civilized people and actually sat down around a table would be a giant lie. The meeting hall was by far the largest of the rooms, easily doubling the sprawling training hall's height and ground area. In the middle of the ridiculously large (and echoey) hall were two large statues resembling hands with their palms up, as though each was cupped around a ball.

From where they stood, Itachi could see that each of the fingers had a different symbol carved onto the nails. The left thumb read "gyoku", then the index finger "san", middle finger "hoku", ring finger "nan" and pinky "kuu". The right hand's pinky read "gai" followed by "shu", "bya", "ao" and "rei". Recognizing his kanji character, Itachi made his way to stand on the left ring finger, while Kakashi mirrored him, standing on the right ring finger. Almost immediately after they had taken their spot, Pein and Konan showed up, Konan on the right middle finger and Pein on the right thumb.

Itachi and Kakashi both spared their seniors a nod in greeting before looking back to each other to share a look: where were the others?

Two minutes later, the first sign of sentient beings emerged from one of the shadowy doorways. It was the silhouette of a tall and slim figure with long hair and a rounder one half his height that looked like... a rock. Needless to say, as they stepped into the brighter area, the pair could see that they were both wearing the traditional Akatsuki garb.

The taller one had impossibly pale skin. His mouth was twisted in a smirk while his reptilian eyes were outlined with purple markings. "Oh my, see, Sasori? We weren't the latest," the voice made Kakashi tense up immediately as the sickly calm tone made its way to his ears. The man's long hair was parted to his right and fell down past his shoulders. It was Orochimaru; one of the Legendary Sannin who had defected from Konoha years before. The man's eyes immediately latched onto Itachi and the Uchiha shot a glance towards Kakashi; yes, he was definitely planning something.

"Huh?" The second man's voice was low and gravelly. He wore a mask similar to Kakashi's but he looked like a hunchback. A glance with Itachi's sharingan told him that the actual person was hiding inside the guise... it was a puppet, wasn't it? So he was a ninja from Suna. "Well isn't that _great_. Now we'll have to wait for everyone and I _hate_ waiting."

Orochimaru laughed, taking his position on the right pinky beside Kakashi. "Oh yes, but look here, we have two new comrades, don't we, Sasori?" His eyes turned to rest on Kakashi on his right, then Itachi on his left before giving Pein a curt nod.

The hunchback made his way to the head of the circle, where he claimed his position on the left thumb. "Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi. Last survivors of their respective clans, wielders of the sharingan, defected from Konoha for massacre of the Uchiha clan the night before." He obviously had an extensive spy network for managing to figure something like this out so early on. "Humph! Still a bunch of kids." He grumbled once more.

Itachi and Kakashi simultaneously narrowed their eyes, but refused to say anything. Likewise, Pein and Konan kept quiet, leaving the pair to talk amongst themselves. It was common knowledge that Orochimaru was twice as old as Kakashi was and the hunchback referred to as Sasori seemed to be just as old if he was able to refer to them as kids.

"Ridiculously strong kids for Pein-sama to let them in immediately, eh?" Orochimaru replied, tilting his head and putting a hand to his chin in thought, "The son of the White Fang of Konoha and the son of the Konoha Police Force's leader. How fitting that we should acquire the last two wielders of the sharingan!"

Kakashi got the feeling that when the snake-like man said "we", he meant himself and Sasori – an ominous and likely untrue thought, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

"Humph, greedy bastards." Another deep voice echoed throughout the cavern.

"WHAT? Greedy bastards? Go suck a dick you asshole! Jashin-sama curse you!" Another voice complained loudly. Pein narrowed his eyes; this wasn't a voice that he was familiar with.

"Kakuzu," the ginger addressed the man sharply, followed by a comment about how slow he was, courtesy of Sasori.

"Yeah, I killed the other one." The man finally came into sight, face hidden by a ski mask and a Takigakure forehead protector. "I found a replacement. Tried killing him four times but he just won't die." Bright green irises surrounded by red sclera once again latched onto the two newcomers.

"Kill me? That fucking hurt like _hell_, you bastard! Who stabs their fellow pioneer in immortality five times and rips their arms and legs out?" The other one roared. When he came into sight, he looked every ounce as arrogant as he sounded. Silvery hair a shade darker than Kakashi's was slicked back, revealing violet eyes slanted in indignation. His neck was covered by a forehead protector which Kakashi recognized as the extinct Yuugakure village while his chest was bare, revealing recent wounds over various vital organs that had been stitched close, similar ones on each elbow, proving the fact that he was indeed immortal. His lower body was covered in a pair of dark pants in surprisingly good conditions, as his ninja sandals were. On his back was an atrocious looking weapon – a red, triple bladed scythe while hanging from a chain around his neck was a pendant in the shape of a circle and a triangle in it.

Looking back to Pein, Kakashi saw the man's eyes narrow. "Tch, fine. Do you have the ring?" In response, a ring was tossed to his hand. "Come here." He indicated the other newcomer.

"Fuck, no, bastard." The man flipped his finger at Pein, earning himself a rap on the head from Kakuzu at his side. "Kakuzu!" He whined, glaring as though he were betrayed.

"Hurry up and move your ass, idiot." The man referred to as Kakuzu growled. "I won't fix you up this time if you get blasted to bits, Hidan." With that, he took his place on Kakashi's other side, fixing both sharingan wielders with a stare at the same time. "They would make good bounties one day." He commented, earning a loud curse from Hidan, who was still on the ground.

"They would be of more use to _me_ than to you, Kakuzu!" Sasori growled.

"Quiet!" Pein's voice boomed, immediately silencing the other Akatsuki members. Turning to Hidan, he tossed the ring down. "Wear it on your right index finger. You will be Kakuzu's partner. Welcome to Akatsuki." Frankly, he didn't sound very welcoming at all, as though he were still annoyed about the loud-mouth's backtalk.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't give a shit about your Akatsuki crap." Hidan snorted disdainfully, looking as though he had every intention of walking out before Kakuzu stopped him.

"_Hidan_." Kakuzu's voice sounded dangerous. As the purple-eyed man opened his mouth, ready to spout some sort of retort, Kakuzu's hand shot forward, connected to the depths of a sleeve by a multitude of black strings. The tanned arm grabbed the cursing man and set him down on his right before the dismembered limb returned to its original owner.

The appearance of the two made the total attendance a grand total of eight people. Every one of them were S-Ranked Missing Ninjas and everyone of them looked every bit as dangerous.

"Zetsu," Pein's voice rang out again as a human sized Venus-flytrap seemed to grow from Itachi's right on the right hand's pinky. The plant soon became the black Akatsuki cloak as he stood on his feet, finally visible. The plant opened up, revealing a man with short hair the same color as the plant contraption that surrounded him and a man, half black and half white right down the middle.

"Here, we stopped to have a meal." The black side said in a menacing voice.

"You were the one that took so long to eat the brat!" The white one argued.

"You didn't help!" The black one hissed back.

"Enough!" Pein interrupted the split personalities. Every soul in the room was turned to him, staring into his purple rinnegan. "I want to hear your progress and I want you to know that we have three new members. Uchiha Itachi, Hatake Kakashi and Yuugakure's Hidan." A few welcomes were muttered, but they were only met by two nods and a loud, rude remark.

First, Orochimaru reported possible candidates for future Akatsuki members in the Land of Snow (what they were doing there was _not_ pried into) as well as the eradication of quite a few people, most of which neither Kakashi or Itachi knew.

After them, Kakuzu reported that he had earned the organization a grand total of 60 million ryou by collecting two bounties. He had also recruited Hidan and... killed his last partner.

Lastly, Zetsu reported that he had located the Nanabi in Takigakure, which Kakuzu immediately refused to collect.

"Then who will you send, Pein?" Black Zetsu asked.

"What about... us!" The white Zetsu suggested cheerfully. "I'll be enough to take the jinchuuriki on by myself!"

"I refuse." Black Zetsu objected simply. "So, who will you send, Pein?" He asked again.

"We could go?" Orochimaru offered with a knowing smirk – he and Sasori were the most effective team and he himself had a vast armament of jutsu.

Instead of answering them, Pein closed his eyes for a while. When he opened them again, he seemed to have made his decision. "Kakashi and Itachi will go."

The room was silent and everyone was looking at the two impassive men. "Hah! Those dick-less bastards?" Hidan started cackling in a way that made Kakashi doubt his sanity. "They're _kids_ for Jashin's sake!"

Orochimaru snorted, "they massacred the Uchiha clan, idiot. I'll bet that a dozen of you couldn't compete to either of them..." With that, he fixed a creepy smile onto Itachi before his skin started to crack off.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed and shot to Itachi. In a lightning movement, he had pushed his forehead protector up to reveal his sharingan eye. Staring straight at Itachi, the two exchanged a look; Kakashi would help in this one. Neither was sure that they were capable of taking a Sannin on.

"Orochimaru, _stop_." Pein's voice commanded, though the only response he got was a hiss and a glare from snake-like eyes as the man's head suddenly gushed from his body, shredding the Akatsuki cloak into pieces as a horrifying new form of the man was revealed. He had the head of a man, but the body of a giant, white serpent.

No sooner than Kakashi had realized this, the snake dove towards a placid Itachi, where he attempted to swallow the Uchiha. Kakashi grinned as his sharingan picked up the irregular chakra flows from the giant snake; Itachi had managed to put the unsuspecting snake into a genjutsu. Itachi's eyes flickered to meet his for a moment – the signal. Surprisingly, none of the Akatsuki were making a move against the snake and leaving the pair to deal with the matter themselves.

Once more, Orochimaru's form altered to that of his human form again. Having broken eye contact, Itachi's genjutsu wasn't as strong as before and the man snarled, obviously released from the technique. "You...!"

Instead of responding, Itachi landed on the ground, flowing into the familiar taijutsu sequence that he had used on so many ANBU missions with Kakashi. With his speed, he would distract the opponent while Kakashi, with his trademark jutsu, would intervene and finish the target off.

Kakashi jumped to the ground, amassing his chakra and creating a static atmosphere around him, concentrated in his right hand. A high pitched crackling could be heard as the field suddenly expanded. Aided by his sharingan, Itachi cut the taijutsu sequence short as Kakashi started running forward in a flash, the lightning nature chakra in his hand shrieking with power. "Raikiri!" His right hand moved at a sweeping thrust to the Sannin's chest, though somehow, the latter had managed to notice Kakashi in time to thrust his left arm up to block the blow.

With a scream of pain, the snake-man looked on as his left hand fell to the ground, completely severed by the jutsu that he had underestimated. Realizing that he had missed, Kakashi fell back, but not before Orochimaru had caught him with a clawed swipe, managing to claw up the younger man's cheek and taking his mask off with it.

Kakashi landed on his feet with a grunt of pain, having to jump away immediately as Itachi let the trademark Uchiha jutsu loose; "Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!" The fireball engulfed the snake-man's form, drawing another shriek from him. Instinctively, Kakashi moved to cover Itachi, as though they were being attacked by a group of ninjas.

As the fire died down, however, a burning piece of snakeskin shedding was in place of Orochimaru. Itachi's eyes narrowed, but Kakashi immediately located the slippery man at the doorway where he had come from. "Do not think that I have given up on the sharingan just because of this, Uchiha!" He hissed before dissolving into the darkness.

"Orochimaru!" Pein called sharply, eyes narrowing dangerously.

Sasori seemed just as upset, speaking in a low growl. "That snake bastard! How dare he? I don't believe he was such a fool, good riddance to him! I have no need for traitors like that!"

"Dismissed. Sasori, stay here until we find a partner for you." Pein announced, making Zetsu, Kakuzu, Hidan and Sasori disappear. Konan, as always stayed by Pein.

"Kakashi-san..." Itachi's voice brought the silver haired man back to earth. "You're bleeding." He stated quietly.

Kakashi smiled, and for the first time that Itachi had seen the man, he realized just how good-looking his senior was without his mask. "Aw, thanks for caring, Itachi, but I'll be fine!" He waved the concern away lightheartedly.

"What about your..." Itachi didn't bother finishing the sentence, looking away a little awkwardly.

Kakashi shrugged, "oh _that_. I was thinking I'll keep it off, how's that?" He asked, tilting his head.

Itachi shrugged, looking back at him. "If you like," he replied simply.

"Kakashi, Itachi," Pein drew both members' attention. "I want you to set out to Takigakure as soon as possible. Dismissed."

Murmuring words of affirmation, both men left the meeting hall. Once they had reached the darkness of the corridor, Pein and Konan disappeared, leaving the meeting hall as empty as it was fifteen minutes ago.

"How about we set out tomorrow? Takigakure is about four days away from here."

"Are you sure, Kakashi-san?"

"Of course! I'll be all better by then! I'm not as fragile as you think!"

"Hn. You told me that an hour ago."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And? And? How was it? Owo**

**Much, much longer than the other two chapters, right? But is it as good? I dunno. It's up to you~**

**Now I wonder why I made Kakashi take his mask off? I dunno, really.**

**Look forward to the next few chapters, because I'm looking forward to writing them! Read and review because I love hearing from you guys! c:**

… **Also, shall I draw a cover page for Dawning Red? (You can find me on deviantART as EchoxCrash) What do you guys think?**

**Brainstorming for the next chapter in the form of sleep, enjoy and await awesomeness! x3**


	4. Mangekyou Sharingan

**Mangekyou Sharingan**

"Hm, let's stop here for the day, shall we?"

Itachi tensed up, still thrown off by the slight change of voice. Now that Kakashi had taken his mask off, his voice sounded different to what it did before. Grunting in agreement, he followed Kakashi as they took to the ground. They were headed towards the south west, where Takigakure was situated. Judging from the sun, he guessed that it was about five in the afternoon, meaning that they had been traveling casually for about nine hours excluding the two meals.

When Kakashi turned to face him, Itachi noticed that he still had the patch taped to his face. Kakashi was the type of person to discard bandages as soon as he felt that they were not needed. That usually meant that he would wait until it was at the most half healed before he took them off. This time, Itachi had forced Kakashi to keep it on until the _Uchiha_ said it was fine to take it off. It hadn't been easy, but after much persuading (and a little blackmail) the man had finally agreed to do so. "What about a little training?" Kakashi asked, taking the straw hat off and shaking his unruly silver hair out.

"Training?" Itachi asked, following the former's example and fixing him with a suspicious stare; what was he planning now?

Kakashi nodded, tossing the conical hat up, where it hooked on a tree branch. "Training. Normally it should only take two days' journey to get to Takigakure, but I think we should start practicing and planning our tactics now." He explained.

Itachi thought about the prospects for a while; he had wondered why it would have taken that long for them to reach the said village, but it turned out to be a good reason. Of course Kakashi would think of something like that. "What type of training?" He asked, tossing his own hat in a similar fashion. Training? Back at Konoha they didn't train _that_ much.

Kakashi grinned, showing off his white teeth, "sharingan training." When Itachi raised his eyebrows in question, he sobered down, exposing his left eye and fixing the Uchiha with a grave look. "We both know that we need to get used to it."

"Mangekyou sharingan." Itachi stated unnecessarily. The kekkei genkai that could only be awoken when the wielder of the sharingan killed the person closest to them. The knowledge of this brought about thoughts of his predecessor, Uchiha Shisui. Shisui had been his closest friend and Itachi had in a sense, killed him. The thought reminded him of the eye that he had received from Shisui... what should he do with it? Closing his eyes, he activated them once more.

Kakashi did the same, albeit closing only one eye, opening it to reveal his own mangekyou sharingan, which looked much like a pinwheel. "I guess this time should be... stamina training?" The man suggested thoughtfully.

"Stamina... training?" He didn't quite understand this implication.

Kakashi nodded, "stamina training. Using the mangekyou sharingan fatigues one. You used it on Sasuke-kun that night. I could tell you were tired." The man had analyzed the pros and cons of using the dojutsu and had indeed come up with a way to maximize the use of it.

When Itachi nodded for him to continue, Kakashi complied. "Even just activating it consumes more chakra than a normal sharingan." He sure was taking his time explaining it, wasn't he? As though he had seen the exasperated expression on the Uchiha's face, Kakashi just grinned even more before continuing. "We'll get used to the drain of the mangekyou this way – then we can practice the jutsu that comes with it."

It turned out that Kakashi actually meant that they would be going all out for a good three hours, after which both males were physically and mentally exhausted. It had been taijutsu sequence after taijutsu sequence with a little genjutsu laced here and there. It had actually been the mangekyou sharingan that had depleted every last bit of energy that the pair had and now as they stood facing each other and panting, Itachi was on the verge of collapsing. While he was a true sharingan inheritor and Kakashi wasn't, he actually had to account for _two_ sharingan while Kakashi only had one.

Itachi tried to will his knees to stay strong, but they buckled under him. Before he was able to fall, however, Kakashi had caught him, still panting. "That was a little too long, wasn't it?" He asked sheepishly as he maneuvered Itachi so that he was supporting the teen before starting to walk.

Giving a grunt in response, Itachi paced himself to match Kakashi, "we should find an inn to stay at."

Kakashi sighed, "we should." Taking a kunai out, he flipped it upwards so that its butt hit his traveling hat off the tree. Catching it, he dumped it on his head as he tossed it up again to get Itachi's hat. "I guess it'll be about twenty minutes..." Itachi set it on his head and they both trudged onwards to the nearest village in companionable silence.

"Twenty minutes, eh?" Itachi sighed, still unable to properly support himself. He knew that Kakashi was pushing himself by taking his weight, but there really was no other way. He was just glad that he was pretty light, if not they wouldn't even be walking in the first place.

"Yeah... twenty minutes until food." Kakashi grumbled, sliding his forehead protector over his left eye again, now feeling his stomach growling angrily at him.

"I almost wish I was an Akimichi, able to convert calories into chakra!" Itachi grinned despite the situation they were in. Talking about one of the Konoha clans made him go silent for a while, wondering if he had made the right decision or not.

"If you did, you wouldn't have your sharingan," Kakashi reminded him, "and a tragedy could have happened in Konoha." Somehow, even though the massacre was Itachi's idea, Kakashi was more relaxed and accepting towards it.

Itachi silently berated himself; he _knew_ that he had to do it, but he still couldn't just be completely happy about it. He had left Sasuke alone in Konoha, alone and without a friend in Konoha. Sasuke would now have to live with a terrible legacy; his entire clan eradicated in one night and his brother one of the most wanted, dangerous men in the ninja world. Sasuke of course had no knowledge of Kakashi, but would he guess – _could_ he guess? "Kakashi-san,"

"Kakashi's fine, Itachi," The silver haired man corrected him gently.

Itachi gave a noncommittal grunt before continuing; "Kakashi, does anyone know that you've... disappeared?"

"Well, who knows?" Kakashi replied, adjusting Itachi so that he was carrying a little more of the teen's weight. "Anko told me I was acting strange and Iruka almost tied me down and tortured me."

Itachi looked at him, eyes wide in shock. "Tortured you? What did you do?" He exclaimed to the best of his spent state.

Kakashi laughed lightly, "oh, _that_!" He said it as though he were merely commenting on an academy student's aim instead of torture, "I just remembered to say bye when we came out of the movies!"

"... Then it was justified." Kakashi was too careful a person to slip up; he was probably tying up loose ends and cutting off his connection with Konoha. After another moment of silence, Itachi spoke again, "you're such a soft person."

"If you say so, Itachi." He replied lightly, falling back into silence as they approached a village. A bath in the hot springs would be perfect right now...

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, Kakashi was shrugging his cloak off and tossing his hat onto the table. Itachi, however, was having trouble with his own cloak as his hands were still shaking. The intense look of concentration told Kakashi not to interfere—this was probably about Itachi's pride. Keeping his pride... by wrestling with his <em>cloak<em>. It took all he had to keep a straight face as he thought about the comical situation. This was one of the rare times that Itachi acted like a kid; if he had a camera, he would have captured it.

"Are you done yet?" He asked, raising his eyebrows, still thinking about the hot water that awaited them outside.

"Almost..." Itachi grunted, wrestling stubbornly with his cloak. Kakashi had helped him enough already, and besides, he wasn't exactly sure how he would react if he was this close to him again. Suddenly Kakashi was standing over him, so close that when Itachi looked up, all he could see was the man's strong jawline... and all his toned muscles from neck down to waistline. "What?" He asked, somewhat nervously. His heartbeat was accelerating for some reason unbeknownst to himself and he could feel a light blush fanning across his cheeks.

Kakashi sighed, "you're taking too long. That's what," he replied, literally lifting Itachi out of his half undone cloak, throwing him over his broader shoulders and walking matter-of-factly to the door – completely ignoring his indignant protests.

Two doors and one long corridor later brought both ninjas to the circular, steaming bath. Kakashi had immediately slipped into the warm water with a contented sigh while Itachi was at the edge, staring apprehensively, a white towel hanging on his hips.

A long moment later, Kakashi tilted his head backwards, catching sight of Itachi, "oh, scared?" He asked, a lazy grin spreading over his features once more.

"No." Itachi replied flatly, refusing to let any emotion show on his face. The truth was, he had never been to one of these before and the steam made the water seem almost lethal – how could Kakashi enjoy this kind of thing? His fear somehow took away all the muscle pains and exhaustion as his mind told him to stay away from the water.

For a moment, Kakashi didn't reply. Itachi's mind ran through the possibilities, deciding that Kakashi would probably just laugh and make some stupid comment about him before just enjoying the hot water. What he didn't count on, though, was Kakashi managing to sneak an arm around his knees and send him careening into the water with a strangled cry. That would be the second thing to murder Kakashi in his sleep for.

"S-senpai!" Itachi protested, fighting not to scream as the warm water scalded his unprepared skin. He was ready to leap out of the torturous water when Kakashi stopped him again, wrapping an arm around his waist and setting him down on his right, smirking.

"What, a little bath in the hot springs not suitable for your fire natured chakra?" He asked innocently, raising his eyebrows as he poked Itachi's cheek, obviously enjoying every moment of the latter's embarrassment.

When Itachi's head snapped to look at Kakashi, he found a blush involuntarily creeping over his face. The man's mouth was twisted into the first smirk he had ever seen unmasked. Veiled in the steam, his dark gray eyes turned dreamy and stared at him in a way that made him feel very self-conscious. Instead of replying, he looked away, knowing that his voice was dead. Maybe it was because of the heat that he was about to get a nosebleed. Whatever, as long as he got out of here as soon as possible.

"You want to get out of here, right?" Kakashi drew a reluctant Itachi's attention once more. After he received a hesitant nod, he smirked, snaking an arm around Itachi and pulling him closer to his body. The boy immediately tensed up, but didn't offer much resistance. "I'm telling you as your senior that you need to stay in here and cool down. After that training and Orochimaru's attack, you definitely need this."

"Yeah right," Itachi muttered, still blushing heavily.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry, sorry, SORRY! D:**

**You can't believe how sorry I am. I make you guys wait and give you a shitty chapter after that long wait. DX**

**I don't know what I was thinking... but I just wanted some KakaIta thrown in there. There won't be as much in the next chapter, because... because... uh... well, I guess I shouldn't spoil it, should I? :/**

**Read and review? :'3**


	5. Nanabi

**Nanabi**

As Kakashi had rightly predicted, the pair reached Takigakure in four days, feeling very confident that they could take down the jinchuuriki here – without much risk. During the training sessions, Itachi had confessed that the more he used the mangekyou sharingan, the worse his sight became; however, his control of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi could be considered almost perfect.

Kakashi on the other hand, knew he was not losing sight in his sharingan eye. The only technique that the mangekyou gave him, however, was a more defensive one, Kamui. It allowed him to suck an enemy's jutsu into another dimension, but doing so drained his chakra quite severely. He figured out that as long as he had some soldier pills with him, however, he would be fine. Compared to Itachi, his grasp of Kamui wasn't as skilled, but they both knew that it would suffice.

And that was why there were here, the wind teasing their black cloaks and traveling hats hiding their features. The two gave off a solemn atmosphere, plagued by the sunny and windy environment; it was perfect for Itachi's fire element jutsu. They were standing under the shade of a large tree, staring at the tiny entrance to Takigakure, the home village of the jinchuuriki they were supposed to capture. Zetsu had told them that she lived quite near the gates of Takigakure and had short green hair and eyes the shade of amber. She wore her forehead protector on her arm and had some kind of weapon strapped to her back.

Two sharingan met a dark gray eye and the pair slipped into the village, more or less undetected. As they were not one of the prominent villages, Takigakure did not have an intruder barrier to alert them of the two Akatsuki members. At the midday hour, it was uncannily quiet; either the ninjas here were all nocturnal or all out on some mission. There was also a minuscule chance that they might have been waiting for the two, but this occurred to neither.

After all, jinchuuriki were all hated and feared no matter what village they belonged to, right?

Kakashi's left hand reached up deliberately, the tip of his thumb pushing the dark material that covered his sharingan. Despite being scarred, Itachi had always noticed that it was captivating and seemed to hold a regal quality to it; as though Kakashi was meant to be _born_ with it.

Although no word was spoken, Kakashi fell a step behind Itachi, allowing the younger to take the lead. They traveled through the silent village, sandals barely making noise against the packed dirt, acutely aware of their surroundings, lest someone ambush them. Streets and houses later, they finally reached a dingy, small apartment that looked like it had seen much better days; this was it. For sure.

Itachi's hands formed the tiger seal, "Gokakyuu no jutsu!" Corresponding with the name, a large sphere of fire roared to the house, slamming into the wooden door and exploding the entire building.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS IT YOU BASTARDS WANT NOW? I'M NOT FUCKING LEAVING THE VILLAGE!" A distinctly female voice yelled at them, jumping and landing down in front of the ruined house. As the records had said, she had a dark complexion, short green hair and amber eyes burning with a dark, intense fury – a hatred for the world. Her stance was strong and she looked like a taijutsu user just about Kakashi's age, if not a couple of years younger. "Who are you? Who sent you? The old lady?" She seemed determined that they were from Takigakure like herself.

The two didn't say a word, though Itachi felt pity for the woman. Being discriminated and hated for your whole life could really darken a person. She was also impatient, opening her mouth to rage again before Kakashi intervened. "We do not belong to Takigakure. We want what is inside of you," he said simply.

The jinchuuriki snorted and crossed her arms. "This is why I hate ninjas," she growled, "stupid, self-centered people who fear power." They could tell that she wasn't going down without a fight.

"World peace is not for self-centered people," Itachi countered, closing his right eye and gathering his chakra. Raising a hand, he took off his traveling hat, exposing the brilliant crimson sharingan to the midday sun; no one had come to see what was wrong yet, making their job much easier. "Amaterasu!" The black flames rushed to engulf the jinchuuriki's body, drawing out an angered scream from her. Well, her reactions weren't the best, were they?

All of a sudden, that figure went up in a cloud of smoke and Itachi's eyes widened slightly; how had he not noticed it was a kage bunshin? When he looked to Kakashi, the man was similarly surprised; he hadn't expected it to be a kage bunshin either.

"Thought you might have been smarter than that," the sneering voice leered at them from higher ground. This time she had a smirk painted onto her face, staring from her position behind them. Itachi then remembered that she was a jinchuuriki and had more chakra at her disposal than both of them put together.

It was a stupid mistake.

They would _never_ fall for the same trick twice.

"As expected," Kakashi commented, commending the kunoichi for her skill at tricking them, "however, we will not hold back any longer," with that, he disappeared, lunging forward to try his luck at close combat, leaving Itachi as backup.

Despite knowing that the jinchuuriki was a taijutsu type, Kakashi went ahead, kunai trapped in his left hand, leaving his right hand free for openhanded attacks. The woman snorted and jumped down the wall, leaving Kakashi to vault over it and come down after her, gathering speed to mimic a certain green-clad man unique only to Konoha.

Needless to say, the move didn't quite work; Kakashi guessed that she had taken about half the intended damage, which basically meant that she couldn't walk properly or use her left arm. Judging from the grim smirk, he hadn't gotten her dominant arm. Pity really, could have made their work easier.

The familiar feeling of Itachi's chakra came closer towards him and Kakashi got out of the way as quickly as he could, knowing that he did not want to be in the range of whatever attack the younger had in mind.

"Hey! I'm not done with you!" The jinchuuriki shouted as Kakashi retreated. She grunted as she tried to move and the silver haired man smirked; well, at least that was done properly.

After two seconds, Kakashi realized that Itachi had not yet let loose an attack. Instead, his chakra was built up and took on a Yin nature; that meant genjutsu that was cast with eye contact. Leaping back a couple of meters, Kakashi delved to the right, towards Itachi. The kunoichi fell for it; her eyes followed him and flicked up to Itachi, where her face turned to one of horror.

"Tsukuyomi!"

Well, Kakashi should have guessed that Tsukuyomi would be coming. While he knew that this was the best and most efficient way to capture the jinchuuriki (seeing as they were not allowed to actually kill the hosts) he did not like the way that it worsened Itachi's sight.

The soft thump of a body hitting the ground drew Kakashi's gaze to the green haired woman, seeing how she hit the ground face first, completely out cold. His sharingan told him that her chakra was regulated once more, Itachi having lifted his genjutsu. Convinced that she posed no more threat, the silver haired man looked to his younger partner, seeing the frown on his face.

"That didn't take long," he commented, looking at the jinchuuriki with a mixture of contempt and pity. Just by looking at him, Kakashi couldn't tell that he was exhausted in the slightest way. He smiled nevertheless.

"Yeah," he replied, scooping the jinchuuriki up with one arm and hoisting her over his shoulder, "she could have at least wanted to survive," he pulled his forehead protector down over his sharingan again, stopping the kekkei genkai from eating away even more of his chakra.

Itachi blinked, deactivating his sharingan, "pathetic," he looked to the wall, still free of blemish, "no one even came to save her," the Uchiha looked away, "the villagers here are weak."

Kakashi nodded almost sympathetically, "I guess so." After a moment of silence, both put a foot forward, heading back in the direction they came from, this time skirting around the barren village and trekking through the forest, "we'll take a break soon," he promised his junior.

"When we're halfway," Itachi clarified.

"Earlier."

"Are you tired?"

"No. You are."

"How would you know that?"

"I know, trust me, I know."

Itachi sniffed, "whatever," he dismissed his elder, only earning himself a chuckle and light punch on the shoulder.

* * *

><p>The teen looked up at the sky; Kakashi had literally forced him to sit down here. They had only been traveling for two hours, but Kakashi had insisted that they rest, even giving the excuse that the jinchuuriki was heavy and that he needed a rest when he didn't. Kakashi knew that he didn't have to baby Itachi, but he did it anyways. And Itachi couldn't resist. It really wasn't fair.<p>

Shifting his gaze away from the cloudless sky, he looked at the jinchuuriki, taking in her face stonily – she looked harmless like this, and it was hard to believe that they had been tricked into thinking that a kage bunshin was the real thing. That was embarrassing, he remembered unhappily, vowing to himself never to fall for such a trick again.

Standing near the jinchuuriki was Kakashi, his silvery hair shining in the sunlight. The dark blue forehead protector under his hair soon melted into pale skin, following his jawline, while the cloak's high collar made sure that he would not see the man's features.

"We can go now, I'm fine," Itachi said, attempting to get up.

Kakashi turned around before he walked over. With a single finger, he pushed Itachi back down, amusement clear in his eyes. "Hm? No concern for me? How cruel, Itachi," he teased, squatting down to his level.

"Shut up," Itachi muttered, looking away. He hated when Kakashi acted like that – he just couldn't argue with him. He knew that Kakashi really didn't need the rest, but he couldn't bring himself to contradict his senior.

To tell the truth, he was also unsettled by the absence of a mask over the man's handsome features but he would never admit it. Not even to himself. Maybe to himself.

"You don't look satisfied," Kakashi commented again, making Itachi look back at him, "we'll go in a couple of minutes, so don't worry, we'll be home in no time," he grinned widely.

The Uchiha's face was expressionless, "Kakashi?"

"Eh?" The silver haired man responded.

"I hate you."

Kakashi only laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ok. I'm really, really, **_**really**_** sorry that I haven't updated this in a long time. Once again, SORRY! D:**

**What happen to little or no KakaIta? I don't know. w;;**

**Read and Review?****  
>Because I'm really sorry~<strong>


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